Skip to main content

The GOP Chorus Line


That's all well and good but show me your legs

Potential Republican presidential candidates were in Vegas auditioning for Sheldon Adelson and his conservative Jewish Coalition.  Adelson was apparently none too happy in 2012 when he tossed away $90 million of his hard-earned money on candidates like Moonbase Newt and Rombo, and vowed to scrutinize his candidates more closely this time around.

Unfortunately, good ol' Chris Christie stuck his foot in his mouth once again, referring to the "occupied territories" of the West Bank.  Of course, he meant it as a compliment to the Israeli security forces, but conservative Jews don't consider this occupied land, rather their own sovereign territory, so the guv was forced to apologize for "misspeaking."

Even George Bush recognized the West Bank as "occupied land" and pushed for a two-state solution during his two terms in office, but if you want the big bucks you have to cater to the likes of Adelson, who seems determined to buy this election.

I've got a lead this big!

One wonders if Christie knows at all what he is saying anymore.  After that faux inquiry into "bridgegate," clearing himself of all charges.  He seems to think he is a front runner again.  But, alas the GOP lead horse appears to be Rand Paul, who carried the CPAC straw poll recently, well ahead of Christie who finished a distant fourth behind Ted Cruz and the Republicans' favorite doctor, "Uncle Ben" Carson, who compares Obamacare with slavery.

The Jersey boss isn't going to let this one go without a fight, even if he has to show off his legs in front of the Vegas judges.  Quite frankly, none of the candidates look very appealing, which is why Sheldon may have to look beyond the front runners and see who else is lurking in the GOP chorus line.  But, is America ready for another Bush?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, not...

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

The Searchers

You are invited to join us in a discussion of  The Searchers , a new book on John Ford's boldest Western, which cast John Wayne against type as the vengeful Ethan Edwards who spends eight years tracking down a notorious Comanche warrior, who had killed his cousins and abducted a 9 year old girl.  The film has had its fair share of detractors as well as fans over the years, but is consistently ranked in most critics'  Top Ten Greatest Films . Glenn Frankel examines the origins of the story as well as the film itself, breaking his book down into four parts.  The first two parts deal with Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah, perhaps the most famous of the 19th century abduction stories.  The short third part focuses on the author of the novel, Alan Le May, and how he came to write The Searchers. The final part is about Pappy and the Duke and the making of the film. Frankel noted that Le May researched 60+ abduction stories, fusing them together into a nar...